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Rwanda taps 'explosive' methane lake for electricity supply

Date:

May 28, 2014

Source:

AFP / Powered by NewsLook.com

Summary:

Beneath the calm waters of Lake Kivu lie vast but deadly reserves of methane and carbon dioxide, which Rwanda is tapping both to save lives and provide a lucrative power source. Duration: 02:02
Video provided by AFP

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Google Plans Deeper Energy Push With Tools For Utilities

TheStreet (June 11, 2014) &#151; Google is planning to disrupt the US power delivery system by developing tools that can transmit and distribute electricity more efficiently.The internet giant runs the most popular search engine and itself is a huge consumer of electricity. It has been looking at ways to shakeup the utilities industry and it plans on doing this by developing software and hardware tools to better manage power lines. Google&#039;s in-house development group known as the Energy Access Team is led by Arun Majumdar. Majumdar came to Google as a top energy expert. He was the first director of the US Department of Energy&#039;s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy and was later nominated for the Under Secretary of DoE. He joined Google in 2012 to help the company to advance in the US power sales market, which is worth more than $363 billion. Google is not the first to tap the possibilities of energy management. Zurich based ABB and Munich based Siemens already offer tools that help allocating electricity, but Google engineers think they can do better. Just like Google disrupted smartphone market with android, it may now end up changing the way we get our electricity.
Video provided by TheStreet

Clean Chemistry Nailing Down the Right Catalyst

Deutsche Welle (July 7, 2013) &#151; Scientists in Berlin are trying to harness a readily available resource for the chemical industry. A by-product of petroleum extraction, methane gas is usually burnt off unused. The researchers want to use it to synthesize ethylene, a precursor material for many kinds of plastics.
For that, they need to find the appropriate catalyst, a substance that will make the transformation of methane into ethylene quicker and more energy-efficient. The work is being overseen by Chemistry Laureate Gerhard Ertl. He worked for nearly two decades at the Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society in Berlin, and is considered one of the pioneers of modern surface catalysis research. Tomorrow Today paid a visit to Prof. Ertl and his collaborators in the lab to ask if the right catalyst is indeed the key to clean chemistry.

Huge Dam in Ethiopia Could Destroy Kenyan Lake

AFP (June 8, 2012) &#151; A massive dam on the Omo river in Ethiopia will provide clean, green electricity for countries across East Africa, but at what cost? There are fears disrupting the flow of the river will have a huge impact on Lake Turkana in neighboring Kenya, where thousands of people live off the lake.

SE Indonesia: Hydroelectric Power for Villages

Deutsche Welle (June 17, 2013) &#151; A third of all Indonesians have no access to electricity. Agricultural engineer Tri Mumpuni refused to accept this state of affairs. Her non-profit organization IBEKA, which she founded in 1993 with her husband Iskandar Kuntoadji, installs micro-hydro power plants in Indonesian villages.
They not only supply electricity but also jobs and expertise into rural areas. 54,000 Indonesians are already profiting from this green power.

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